Claudia Angulo stands with her four children outside their home in Orange Cove, California. Angulo says her son Isaac was exposed to toxic levels of the pesticide chlorpyrifos while she was pregnant with him. Ali Budner / Capital Public Radio

Gehl Studios in San Francisco created a project they called The National Street Service, designed to make people stop and think about streets as public space and how we interact with each other in that space. I was invited to collaborate on the part of the project that was specifically about fostering more empathy on the street. This became a site-specific non-narrated audio installation at 16th and South Van Ness. That's where, in 2013, 21-year-old, Dylan Mitchell was struck and killed on his bike while on his way to work. I had the honor of talking to Dylan's mother, Julie, about her son, his life, his death, and what street safety means to her now.

Ted (right) and Rachel (left) Santos of San Jose are pictured here. Ted Santos worked as a welder and maintenance supervisor with San Jose State University for 45 years. Sam Harnett / Capital Public Radio

If you want reliable retirement security, the general wisdom is to get a job in the public sector. Most government employers still offer their retirees a guaranteed monthly pension check — unlike private employers. Is it a necessary perk to keep public sector jobs competitive or just too expensive, given the public sector pension debt challenging cities and states around the country?

On Thursday morning, scores of Oakland police officers in tandem with the Department of Public Works, showed up to clear a unique homeless encampment called “The Village” at 36th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, near the MacArthur BART Station. The camp had been a grassroots partnership between homeless residents, local neighbors, and activist groups like Feed the People and Asians for Black Lives.

Just a day after the city's annual homeless count, Oakland police stepped in and took apart a homeless encampment that had been built by local volunteers. Tiny houses had been constructed from plywood to offer shelter to about 16 people. Video production by Erasmo Martinez.

Cities and states across the country are facing public employee pension debt that is challenging and, in some cases, crippling their budgets. But some municipalities are experimenting with ways to solve that problem. In San Jose, California, voters passed a set of sweeping pension reforms back in 2012. The public employee unions fought back in court. Now a new initiative passed this November may offer a compromise that works.

A pregnant mother has a lot of choices to make. Hospital, birthing center, or home birth? natural birth or epidural? Breastfeed or formula? Co-sleeper, sidecar, or separate crib? But a pregnant woman with depression has one more huge decision to make for her health and the health of the fetus.

"Plant medicines, if used regularly, can safely and effectively assist with symptom relief whilst helping to prevent the respiratory tract infections that can trigger and worsen asthmatic attacks. I do not recommend plant medicine as a substitute for a prescribed inhaler. Plant medicines can be used alongside conventional medication to support and alleviate symptoms and improve overall health. This will lead to improved asthma management over the longer term."

"Jeffrey Karp is at the forefront of a new generation of scientists using nature’s blueprints to create breakthrough medical technologies. Can bioinspiration help to solve some of humanity’s most urgent problems?"

"I'm holding a bowl of dirt up to my nose, in hopes of getting high on the fumes of my backyard compost pile. The microbe that I'm after today is M. vaccae, a living creature that acts like a mind-altering drug once it enters the human body. It has been shown to boost the levels of serotonin and norepinephrine circulating in the systems of both humans and mice. In other words, it works in much the same manner as antidepressant pills. And yes, it is possible to dose yourself by simply breathing in the smell of good dirt.

The drug-like effects of this soil bacteria were discovered, quite by accident,about a decade ago. A doctor named Mary O'Brien created a serum out of the bacteria and gave it to lung-cancer patients, in hopes that it might boost their immune systems. Instead, she noticed another effect: The hospital patients perked up. They reported feeling happier and suffered from less pain than the patients who did not receive doses of bacteria. Further studies in mice confirmed the mood-boosting effect of the soil bugs."

NY Times: Rosemary and Time: Does This Italian Hamlet Have a Recipe for Long Life?

Oct. 19, 2016 By Bryant Rousseau

"In and around Acciaroli, Italy, a particularly pungent variety of locally grown rosemary — said to smell 10 times as strong as the norm — is a daily part of the diet. Residents raise and consume their own rabbits. Anchovies hauled in by the town’s fishermen feature prominently on dinner plates.

Abundant sunshine and clean air keep people outdoors, swimming at beaches or climbing the steep hills that ripple along the Cilento Coast, south of Naples.

Do these environmental factors and food choices — a hyperlocal twist on the Mediterranean diet, which also includes olive oil and fresh vegetables — explain why so many people here, both men and women, live past 90?"

"The future of medicine could be as simple as nibbling a sunflower seed or drinking a cup of tea, with the opening of a new facility at The University of Queensland on 18 October.

The Clive and Vera Ramaciotti Facility for Producing Pharmaceuticals in Plants at UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience has the potential to provide inexpensive medications to patients, which will have a significant impact locally and internationally

Head of the new state-of-the-art laboratory, Professor David Craik, said his team would use the Ramaciotti Facility to transform plants into ‘biofactories’ that produced potent next-generation pharmaceuticals.

“The new drugs will be incorporated into novel plant products such as seeds, medicinal teas and foods, where they have the potential to dramatically improve the lives of patients who cannot afford current medications, or cannot tolerate the effects of their complicated treatment regimes,” he said."

Since Aug. 31, when the Drug Enforcement Administration announced its intention to classify the plant as a Schedule I substance, a group of kratom vendors filed a lawsuit against the government to block the move, angry advocates took to social media in protest and scientists questioned whether they would be able to continue kratom research.

Now, the DEA is withdrawing its notice of intent to put kratom in the most restrictive category of controlled substances, with drugs like LSD and heroin. The DEA says it will instead open an official public comment period — to last until Dec. 1, 2016 — for people to share their experiences using kratom as a medical treatment. It has also requested that the Food and Drug Administration expedite scientific research."

Iranians have long used traditional remedies to cure all kinds of ailments - pennyroyal to soothe, chicory to purify, marjoram to lift the spirits. But a rapid recent growth in traditional medicine has led to problems with regulation. Persian herbs and spices on display at a market. Photograph: Antoine Pedro via Flickr

Icon Genetics' Dr. Frank Thieme selects samples of Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of tobacco, growing in a company greenhouse in Halle, Germany. The company uses the plants to produce antibodies that could be helpful for increasing supplies of ZMapp. Sean Gallup/Getty Images. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/10/10/355184997/answering-your-questions-about-ebola-treatments-and-vaccines